With only three rounds remaining in the Maxxis British Motocross Championship round 6 at Foxhills near Swindon was always going to be a pivotal point in the series. Title contenders Kristian Whatley, Samsung Yamaha and Stephen Sword, Buildbase CCM had to beat red plate holder Brad Anderson to stand a realistic chance of removing him from the top spot and allowing him a second British title. So into qualification and it was clear Ando meant business as he set a blistering pace only beaten by a fired up Tom Church on his new team the HM Plant Red Bull KTM, so with only 1.5 seconds splitting the top five it was going to be tight going into superpole. Church was forced down the order to 4th as Whatley put his Samsung Yamaha clear at the top with almost a second clear of Anderson in second and nearly three seconds in front of Sword in 5th!!!
As they lined up for moto 1 it would be Whatley putting his Yamaha on the extreme inside of the gate with Ando lining up right alongside! As the gate dropped it was Anderson and Sword hitting the front with Whatley not far adrift but a spill on the first lap left him down the order and on one of his infamous charges through the pack, by lap three he had the Samsung machine into 5th and by lap seven he was into third and chasing down the duo of title contenders that where left in front of him. Sword made his move getting pit signals that Whatleys Yamaha was closing them down fast and took the lead in a physical challenge on Anderson who clung on to hold second in front of Whatley who yet again set the race's fastest lap proving he's the man to watch.
Moto 2 and with Whatley fired up at his moto 1 error it would of been a good bet to put him down for the win. Focused and wanting to show the rest of the pack his sponsor laden rear fender he again lined up on the extreme inside of the gate ready to do battle. Again it was Ando and Sword up front with Alex Snow on the Lanes Kawasaki, but Whatley had them all within striking distance and as he tried to settle his nerves made another error on the far side of the circuit, this time staying down!!! He'd crashed hard onto his shoulder and was obviously in a lot of pain, remounting he circulated for another lap before pulling off and taking a visit to the local A&E!!! This then left the door open for his main two championship rivals. Ando must have thought his luck was in as at the half way mark Sword slowed and pulled out with a damaged ankle! The win was now a matter of riding round at a steady pace to collect 25points but more drama unfolded as on the last lap the PAR Honda struck mechanical trouble and Ando had to nurse the machine home to a 4th place handing the win to a jubilant Martin Barr aboard the Proppa.com KTM!
With the final moto missing two of the top three in the championship you could see the releif on Andersons face before they lined up on the gate. It didn't however go to plan for Ando as he hit Parkers stricken KTM on lap 1 putting him back down the order to eighth and he could only come back through to 6th at the flag not capitalising on what could of been an extra 50points on his two main rivals!
MX2 was to be a question of damage limitation for Samsungs Ray Rowson, still suffering from his knee injury he struggled in qualification and nursed it home to 19th place. Come moto 1 and a cautious start saw the Yamaha almost at the back of the field so the job was on to carve his way through the pack to pick up some much needed points in the championship race. As he moved up the leader board disaster struck yet again, he pulled out of the race with more trouble with his already damaged knee! That was his day over and possibly his season too, does this lad get any good luck???
So it was left to his team mates Jackson Evans and new boy to the Samsung Yamaha team, Liam Garland to fly the flag. Garland was to set the next best qualification time to Rowson with a 24th, incidentally ten places hire than he'd ever qualified to date in the Maxxis championship showing how well the team set-up suited him.
Evans posted 29th just a second down in time. So back to moto 1 and Evans got his trademark poor start coming round on lap one in 28th with Garland flying out of the gate helped by his pint sized stature inside the top 15 off the start and past the timing truck in 16th place! Evans started to go backwards as team mate Rowson and a couple of other of other riders that had had poor starts started to sort the pecking order out. Garland managed to stay in a point scoring position for half the race proving he must have changed to better machinery while Garland started to go backwards Evans was making amends and closing in on his team mate and in the dying laps he caught and past Garland with both riders following each other across the line in 23/24th position.
Both riders suffered poor starts in the second encounter with Garland again getting the upper hand on Evans but this time Evans was having a much better ride reminiscent of his debut appearance at Little Silver (rd 1) and by lap 3 he had caught and passed fellow Samsung mounted Yamaha rider Garland, who later pulled out with a problem. Evens continued to push hard moving further up the leader board snatching the last point scoring place on the final lap. His best result since round one and hopefully some extra motivation for the final two rounds.
Final moto of the day and again both the Samsungs failed to get a good start but this time it was Evans who had the better of Garland
and both riders pushed each other on with Garland passing Evans on lap three which only for the places to be traded back the following lap. This seemed to be the nudge Evans needed as he then pulled away and moved up a further 3 places at the flag crossing the line in 23rd with Garland 26th. Garland later commented who much he enjoyed the Samsung Yamaha and stated there would be better to come.
So with the long trek up to Scotland for round seven intensive physio for Whatley should see him back 100% fit and with nothing to lose and everything to gain hopefully an on fire Samsung Yamaha will put the pressure on the series leader by winning the remaining 6 races.
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